The present invention relates to microscopic digital imaging of complete tissue sections for medical and research use. In particular it describes a method for high throughput montage imaging of microscope slides using a standard microscope, digital video cameras, and a unique pulsed light illumination system.
Laboratories in many biomedical specialties, such as anatomic pathology, hematology, and microbiology, examine tissue under a microscope for the presence and the nature of disease. In recent years, these laboratories have shown a growing interest in microscopic digital imaging as an adjunct to direct visual examination. Digital imaging has a number of advantages including the ability to document disease, share findings, collaborate (as in telemedicine), and analyze morphologic findings by computer. Though numerous studies have shown that digital image quality is acceptable for most clinical and research use, some aspects of microscopic digital imaging are limited in application.
Perhaps the most important limitation to microscopic digital imaging is a xe2x80x9csub-samplingxe2x80x9d problem encountered in all single frame images. The sub-sampling problem has two components: a field of view problem and a resolution-based problem. The field of view problem occurs when an investigator looking at a single frame cannot determine what lies outside the view of an image on a slide. The resolution-based problem occurs when the investigator looking at an image is limited to the resolution of the image. The investigator cannot xe2x80x9czoom inxe2x80x9d for a closer examination or xe2x80x9czoom outxe2x80x9d for a bird""s eye view. Significantly, the field of view and resolution-based problems are inversely related. Thus, as one increases magnification to improve resolution, one decreases the field of view. For example, as a general rule, increasing magnification by a factor of two decreases the field of view by a factor of four.
To get around the limitations of single frame imaging, developers have looked at two general options. The first option takes the general form of xe2x80x9cdynamic-roboticxe2x80x9d imaging, in which a video camera on the microscope transmits close to real time images to the investigator looking at a monitor, while the investigator operates the microscope by remote control. Though such systems have been used successfully for telepathology, they do not lend themselves to documentation, collaboration, or computer based analysis.
The second option being investigated to overcome the limitations inherent in single frame imaging is a montage (or xe2x80x9cvirtual slidexe2x80x9d) approach. In this method, a robotic microscope systematically scans the entire slide, taking an image at every field. The individual images are then xe2x80x9cknittedxe2x80x9d together in a software application to form a very large data set with very appealing properties. The robotic microscope can span the entire slide area at a resolution limited only by the power of the optical system and camera. Software exists to display this data set at any resolution on a computer screen, allowing the user to zoom in, zoom out, and pan around the data set as if using a physical microscope. The data set can be stored for documentation, shared over the Internet, or analyzed by computer programs.
The xe2x80x9cvirtual slidexe2x80x9d option has some limitations, however. One of the limitations is file size. For an average tissue section, the data generated at 0.33 um/pixel can be between two and five gigabytes uncompressed. In an extreme case, the data generated from one slide can be up to thirty-six gigabytes.
A much more difficult limitation with the prior systems is an image capture time problem. Given an optical primary magnification of twenty and a two-third inch CCD, the system field of view is approximately (8.8 mmxc3x976.6 mm)/20=0.44xc3x970.33 mm. A standard tissue section of approximately 2.25 square centimeters, therefore, requires approximately fifteen hundred fields to cover the tissue alone.
Field rate in montage systems is limited by three factorsxe2x80x94camera frame rate, image processing speed, and the rate of slide motion between fields. Given today""s technology, the rate of slide motion is a significant limiting factor largely because the existing imaging systems require the slide to come to a stop at the center of each field to capture a blur free image of the field.
For example, traditional bright field microscopic illumination systems were designed to support direct visual examination of specimen on the field and therefore depend on a continuous light source for illumination. Continuous light however, is a significant limitation for digital imaging in that the slide must be stationary with respect to the camera during CCD integration. Slide motion during integration results in a blurred image. Traditional montage systems, therefore, have had to move the slide (and stage) from field to field in a precise xe2x80x9cmove, stop, take image and move againxe2x80x9d pattern. This pattern requires precise, expensive mechanics, and its speed is inherently limited by the inertia of the stage.
Thus, a system is needed to address the image capture time limitation. The system must also enable efficient and high quality imaging of a microscope slide via a high-resolution slide scanning process.
The present invention relates to a method and illumination system for imaging a specimen on a slide. The system includes a motorized stage, a pulse light illumination system, and a stage position detector. The motorized stage moves the slide while an image of the slide is captured. The pulsed light illumination system optically stops motion on the motorized stage while allowing continuous physical movement of the motorized stage and thus the slide. The stage position detector is associated with the motorized stage and the stage position detector controls firing of the pulsed light illumination system at predetermined positions of the motorized stage.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a microscopic imaging system for whole slide montage in which standard microscope optics, off the shelf cameras, a simple motorized stage, and pulse light illumination system can be used to produce perfectly aligned image tiles, and acquire these images at a speed limited by the camera frame rate.
The present invention uses a strobe light triggered by a direct Ronchi ruler or other stage-positioning device, to produce precisely aligned image tiles that can be made into a montage image of tissue sections on a microscope slide. Significantly, due to the short light pulse emitted by a strobe, clear images can be obtained without stopping the microscope stage. This significantly increases the image throughput while decreasing the expense and precision required in the stage mechanics.
In the preferred embodiment, a strobe arc is placed at the position of the lamp bulb in a standard microscope system. The camera shutter is opened and the strobe is fired, in response to the position of the stage as reported by a direct position sensor. If stray light is minimized, the camera exposure can be much longer than the strobe flash, allowing low cost cameras to be utilized.
It is another object of the invention to significantly increase the image throughput of a tiling image system by allowing, through the use of the strobe light, continuous motion of the slide under the microscope. The inventive system thus eliminates the need to stop the microscope stage to capture an image.
It is another object of the invention to reduce the demands of camera, stage, and strobe synchronization by controlling the firing of the strobe light based on direct stage position feedback, thereby, substantially reducing the mechanical specifications on the stage and camera components.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and advantages of the invention to be realized and attained by the microscopic image capture system will be pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.